Pocket Tanks

Pocket Tanks is a 1–2 player computer game by Michael P. Welch from Blitwise Productions. Adapted from Michael Welch's earlier Amiga game Scorched Tanks, Pocket Tanks features modified physics, hundreds of weapons ranging from simple explosive shells to homing missiles, and the ability to move the tank. Originally released for Windows and Mac OS X, it was later released also for iOS, Android, and Windows Phone.

Pocket Tanks
The "Roman Candle", one of the 15 weapons in the Meteor expansion pack.
Developer(s)Blitwise Productions
Publisher(s)Blitwise Productions
Producer(s)Michael P. Welch
Designer(s)Michael P. Welch
Composer(s)DNA-groove (Eliran Ben Ishai)
Platform(s)Windows
Mac OS X
iOS
Android
Windows Phone
Release2001
Genre(s)Artillery
Mode(s)Competitive
Players: 1–2

Gameplay

The point of Pocket Tanks, often abbreviated as PTanks or simply as PT, is to use various weapons to attack the other player's tank. Each hit scores a certain number of points, which varies based on the weapon and proximity. At the end of 10 volleys, the player with the highest points wins.

The game features a fully destructible environment, which allows player to put themselves on pedestals, in tunnels, or bunkers, allowing for the probability of strategic play. Pocket Tanks supports weapon expansion packs, players can have up to 325 different weapons in total. Network play was made available in the v1.3 release.

Expansion packs

There are "weapon packs" available which give the player more weapon choices during gameplay. However, these expansion packs are only available to those who own Pocket Tanks Deluxe. For the PC version, there are 30 Expansion Packs available to download on the web page. All packs that include 5 weapons are free, while those with 15 have to be purchased (mobile versions only). There are 320 weapons in total, including 30 from the original game and 290 from the Deluxe Version.

Development history

Michael P. Welch from Blitwise Productions created Amiga games before he started developing PC games such as Super DX-Ball and Neon Wars. Welch developed Pocket Tanks as remake/sequel of the Amiga game Scorched Tanks and extended the game-play with modified physics, dozens of new weapons, and the ability to move the tank. The game's soundtrack was created by Eliran Ben Ishai as Impulse Tracker Module file.[1] The first version of Pocket Tanks was released in 2001.

Version 1.3 was released in November 2007. It contains bug fixes, LAN and IP support.

A Collector's Edition of Pocket Tanks was released on November 16, 2007. It contains the first 14 expansion packs and the Deluxe version of Pocket Tanks. The CD and case comes with special art, and it is cheaper to buy the expansion packs through the Collector's Edition, but other than that there are no differences between the Deluxe and Collector's Edition.

Version 1.6 is currently the most recent desktop release and it includes more expansion packs to obtain. This version is available for MacOS and the Windows Desktop.

On October 26, 2001 the first version of pocket tanks was released after a beta. This version continued to be updated, adding features like network support and more weapons.

On June 1, 2008 pocket tanks became available for MacOS. (OS X)

On April 15, 2009 pocket tanks was released on iPhone. This version included a new touch interface and 35 weapons to enjoy for free. The iOS version continues to be updated along with other mobile versions that were released later.

On December 7, 2012, Pocket Tanks became available on the Android operating system.[2]

On January 9, 2013, Blitwise announced the availability of Pocket Tanks on the Windows Store. Users with desktops, laptops, and tablets running Windows 8 or Windows RT can now download the game from the Windows Store.[3]

On March 7, 2013, Blitwise announced the availability of "Pocket Tanks" on the Amazon AppStore.[4]

Version 2.1 added support for the latest weapon packs and fixes bugs that prevented from being playable on the Surface Pro.[5]

Version 2.3 "Brings online functions from a third party Backend as a Service supported framework to a BlitWise maintained AWS hosted server infrastructure." [6]

Version 2.5.2 is currently the latest release of the game as of 2020 and is available for Windows Store, iOS, Amazon Appstore, and Android. Pocket Tanks is currently available on Windows, MacOS, iOS, Android, Amazon Appstore, and Windows store. The PC versions of the game lack some of the features of the mobile and Windows store version. The game is still being updated as of 2020.

References
  1. Pocket Tanks intro on SoundCloud
  2. "Pocket Tanks - Android Apps on Google Play". Play.google.com. Retrieved 2014-07-22.
  3. "Another Day another AppStore - Blogs - BlitWise Bulletin Board". Blogs.blitwise.com. Retrieved 2014-07-22.
  4. "Old News - Blogs - BlitWise Bulletin Board". Blogs.blitwise.com. Retrieved 2017-09-14.
  5. "Building a Bigger Better Release - Blogs - BlitWise Bulletin Board". Blogs.blitwise.com. Retrieved 2014-07-22.
  6. "Amazon store page". a.co. Retrieved 2017-09-14.
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